Rational versus Fashionable: Youth Identity, Play and Agency in Namibian Cycling Mobilities

Abstract

The bicycle has been prescribed as an ‘intermediate mode of transport’ intended as a low-cost approach to address mobility inequality and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Within this framework, the bicycle is commonly intended to technologically advance head portage for those who cannot access motorized transport. The singular vision of the bicycle as a load-carrying device has sought to encourage industrious activities over alternative practices, such as play, embodied sensory experiences of mobility and conspicuous consumption for identity performance that are important aspects of youth agency. This article alternatively demonstrates the complexity of mobility and consumer behaviour among young Namibians as they negotiate multiple identities embodied in their mobility. In doing so, the article examines the limitations of youth agency expressed in play, mobility and subject formation, given the normative understandings of gender.